Government shutdown updates: Biden signs funding bill, averting shutdown
Biden signed the stopgap measure on Saturday.
With a government shutdown narrowly avoided late Friday into Saturday morning, the House and Senate sent a funding bill to President Joe Biden's desk.
An initial bipartisan deal was tanked earlier this week by President-elect Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk. Then on Thursday night, the House failed to pass a revamped plan that included Trump's explosive demand that the debt limit be extended.
Under the proposal, the 118-page bill contains most of the provisions that were put in place in the bipartisan bill that was agreed to on Wednesday. The bill includes $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, provisions that were under heavy debate prior to this week's votes.
Key Headlines
- Biden signs short-term government funding bill
- Senate approves short-term government funding bill
- Ahead of vote on shutdown bill, Senate approves funding for pediatric cancer research
- Jeffries calls funding bill passage 'a victory'
- Johnson celebrates passage of funding bill, urges Senate to clear it swiftly
- What's included in the new bill
What's included in the new bill
The new legislation is a short-term extension that funds government through March 14, 2025.
It does not address the debt limit in the legislative text, which was a key demand from President-elect Donald Trump.
It also includes $100 billion for disaster aid; $30 billion for farmers; and a one-year extension of the farm bill.
-ABC News' John Parkinson and Lauren Peller
New bill to avert shutdown released, plans for vote soon
A new, 118-page bill has been released to fund the government and avert a shutdown after a day of closed-door talks and negotiations among House Republicans.
There are plans to begin debate on the text soon and vote within the next hour.
The bill is being brought to the floor under suspension of the rules and will require a two-thirds majority for passage.
House GOP comes to 'agreement' on $2.5 trillion cut in mandatory spending, sources say
The funding options Republicans are mulling over to avoid a government shutdown exclude Trump's demand to extend or eliminate the debt ceiling.
But sources told ABC News that Republicans came to an “agreement” on Friday to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion in the first reconciliation package of the next Congress, with a $2.5 trillion cut in net mandatory spending in the process.
This was presented to members in a closed-door meeting to discuss spending ahead of Friday night's shutdown deadline.
Mandatory spending includes highly popular entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare -- which Trump vowed on the campaign trail not to touch.
-ABC News' Jay O'Brien, Lauren Peller, Isabella Murray, John Parkinson and Emily Chang
Johnson: 'We will not have a government shutdown'
House Speaker Mike Johnson was confident there would be no shutdown after huddling with his conference behind closed doors for several hours.
Johnson told reporters that Republicans have reached an agreement “to move forward." Though he notably declined to divulge the particulars of the plan ahead of a potential vote on Friday afternoon.
“We have a unified Republican conference,” Johnson said.
“There is a unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward," he added.
Leaving the meeting, Johnson hinted that he was prepared to run the latest plan past Trump.
“I will not telegraph to you the specific details of that yet, because I've got a couple of things I got to wrap up in a few moments upstairs, but I expect that we will be proceeding forward,” Johnson said.
Nevertheless, the speaker predicted that Congress will act prior to the funding deadline tonight.
“We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations for our farmers who need aid, for the disaster victims all over the country, and making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays. I'll give you the more details here in just a few moments,” Johnson said.
-ABC News' Jay O'Brien, Lauren Peller and John Parkinson